In 2025, fire departments serving Yakima responded to 912 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 48% of all calls.
May peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,904 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $38.2M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,080 | — | |
| 2022 | 963 | -10.8% | |
| 2023 | 1,170 | +21.5% | |
| 2024 | 779 | -33.4% | |
| 2025 | 912 | +17.1% |
For the 125 building fires Yakima departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,736 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Outside area, other | 601 | 22.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 483 | 17.7% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 195 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Other | 172 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 159 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 150 | 5.5% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 134 | 4.9% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 97 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 71 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 65 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 609 | 22.3% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Yakima mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,672 | 61.1% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 167 | 6.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 135 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 109 | 4.0% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 103 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 69 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 67 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 53 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 47 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 40 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 274 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Yakima departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 52% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $536,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Yakima sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,140,844 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 171,915 | 22.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 163,884 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 74,800 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 72,641 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 71,209 | 27.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 57,520 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 52,056 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 48,902 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 46,802 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 43,874 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | 41,748 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,648 | 31.8 mi |
Top 9 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Washington cities with population within ±25% of Yakima. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Yakima.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.